When the city's top prosecutor weighed whether to charge a retired city police officer who shot an intruder on his property, his most pressing question was: Why did the homeowner shoot the intruder's windshield?

On Thursday, Commonwealth's Attorney Phil Ferguson decided against charging Charles Duck with any wrongdoing. He concluded that Duck feared for his life and that of his wife when an intruder tried to steal a dog box from his property three weeks ago.

Duck told police he didn't know whether the intruder had a weapon. If he did, Duck told investigators, he and his wife would be in the line of fire.

Ferguson released a four-page letter Thursday morning that outlined his reasoning, including Duck's version of what happened:

It was 2:30 a.m. on Jan. 13. Duck's dog had awakened him while he slept in a recliner in the living room.

Duck had just had leg surgery and was using crutches to get around.

He heard his wife walk downstairs and she told him someone was trying to take his dog box, which is used to transport dogs for hunting.

Duck's wife went into a bathroom next to the living room, opened the window and yelled at the intruder numerous times to leave the dog box alone.

When the intruder refused to listen, Duck armed himself, got up and walked to a back window where he propped up his left leg.

He opened the window and saw the intruder in the backyard trying to load the box into a pickup.

Leave the box alone, and walk to the front of the truck where I can see you, Duck warned the intruder.

Lie down, Duck ordered the man, who appeared nervous and looked around.

Duck said the intruder started to walk to the front and then he yanked open the passenger side door and jumped in.

Duck fired two shots at the windshield, fearing the intruder would grab a gun and shoot him or his wife.

The intruder popped up on the driver's side and Duck fired four rounds at the tires on the driver's side as it drove off into the night.

"I had to be satisfied in my mind (Duck) wasn't just shooting at somebody to kill him," Ferguson said in an interview. "That there was some reasonable basis he feared for his safety or that of his wife."

State law allows a person to use deadly force if he fears for his life, but not to defend property.

"Here's a man who had an operation," Ferguson said. "He was not mobile. He could barely move. He would have been a sitting duck, literally.... Because of that, he fired to protect his life, which was significant to me.

"Once the guy jumped up and was in the driver's seat, he didn't shoot again. That, to me, is critical. It shows his only intent ever was to protect himself and his wife."

If he wanted to shoot and kill the intruder, Ferguson said, he could have.

Ferguson said that, had the intruder complied, Duck never would have fired his gun.

Physical evidence showed that Duck's house was roughly 40 feet from the pickup.

A short while after the shooting, police have said, 20-year-old Quamaine L. Lassiter showed up at Sentara Obici Hospital with a gunshot wound to the head.

Lassiter said he'd been shot on Lake Kennedy Drive and Cummings Drive by someone in a silver or champagne Lexus, and he repeatedly denied being at Duck's house, according to Ferguson's letter.

With a bullet from Duck's gun still lodged in Lassiter's head shy of his skull, Ferguson states in his letter: "It's problematic to establish that the bullet in his head came from Mr. Duck's gun as doctors have recommended against removing the bullet."

Lassiter's pickup was later recovered on Oak Street at his girlfriend's house, and Duck identified it as being the intruder's pickup.

He also identified Lassiter as being the intruder, Ferguson's letter states.

Suffolk police arrested Lassiter, 20, this week and charged him in an unrelated case in which he is accused of stealing valves from a marine-equipment business about two weeks after he was shot.

Ferguson said investigators tried to interview Lassiter in jail about the incident at Duck's house, but he refused to talk.

Ferguson said he has not decided whether to pursue charges against Lassiter in the incident at Duck's house.

"When you put all those facts together, it seems to me that Mr. Duck acted about as reasonably as a person could act," Ferguson said, adding Duck's training as a police officer kicked in when confronted with the situation.

"It's very consistent with what police officers would have done," he said.

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Welcome to the discussion.

No name-calling, personal insults or threats. No attacks based on
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